"Everybody Gets Knocked Down"

It's getting so close. Boston is 5 weeks and 1 day away. I wish I could say I was over the moon with excitement, but I'm not. I'm so emotional. But I still feel good and confident. All these jitters are just nerves. Race day is going to come and I plan to have a great attitude.

Last week's 22 miler taught me a great lesson. I must respect the distance. I finished the 22 miles in a great mood, and pretty decent time. I came in the house got busy and before I knew it an hour had gone by and I hadn't even had a sip of water. No food, no sports drink, nothing. I got up and realized I felt weird and before I knew it I was in the fetal position with chills and cramps.

Stupid, stupid rookie mistake. After 2 days of nausea and headaches, I nursed myself back from the dehydrated dead and learned a great lesson. Never Again will I be so foolish!

Made me recall my first high altitude race back in June 2007, I got acquainted with the need for electrolyte replacement that day!

My fridge it stocked with PowerAde ZERO and Smart Water. These have become my electrolyte replacement drinks of choice.

In other annoying news, my "lucky shorts" may have met their end. My darling little boy left 4 crayons in his pants pockets this week. They rode through the washer and then reeked havoc in the dryer. An entire load was rainbow speckled. I've Googled every method to removed the mess. I spent $20 on stain removers. Things look better, but my black Nike "Fit Dri" shorts still have some multi-colored accents along the white stripes.

I never thought of them as my "lucky shorts" before. I just realized that in my 4 Marathons, I have worn the same shorts. Kinda seems weird to think of wearing another pair in Boston. Crayola says spot treatment with WD-40 should do the trick on the remaining stains, we shall see.

April 2007 OKC 1st Marathon

October 2007 Wichita 2nd Marathon

April 2009 OKC 3rd Marathon

October 2009 Wichita 4th Marathon

I really hope I can get the stains out. Shoot, maybe I'll just wear them anyway. It'll be like a great little reminder of my little man during the race.

I haven't read it yet, but I know this month's Runners World has an article about balancing motherhood and running. This week's laundry episode really made me take a look at how tricky that balance can be, and we only have one little monkey running around.

I did get a kick out of calling him one Friday as he stayed the night with his NeeNee and Mr. Randy. I had the 22 miler in the morning and was starting at 5:55 AM. So I phoned him at 8:30 to tell him goodnight. Not because He was going to bed, but because I had to go to bed. I never saw that one coming when this little running adventure began back in 2006!

I hope I'm balancing it right. Preferably adding more weight to his side of the scale, because He's my muse in the first place. He asked if he could go with me on Friday when I headed for the door. Oh, how I dream of the day when that's realistic!!

So, this has been such an emotional and physical roller coaster. Training for Boston that is. I have had days where I've had to drag myself out of bed and days where I've had to force myself to stop because I wanted to run all day. Days where the motivation was overflowing and days where I had to dig real deep to remember why I voluntarily do this to myself.

This got me ignited recently. I bought the song today and decreased my "rest day" run by 2 minutes just by cranking this song.

Sports aside, sometimes we all need to remember to get back up and give 'em hell!

MILES:
3/6 22 miles
3/7 3 miles
3/8 45 minute spin class, 3 miles elliptical, 2 mile run
3/9 11 miles, weights
3/10 10 miles
3/11 6 miles
3/12 5 miles, 45 minute spin class, weights
3/13 14 miles
3/14 3 miles